I had a fantastic weekend listening to the man I am officially nicknaming “the Gentle Prophet.” If you are intrigued as to what a non-freaky modern day prophetic ministry could look like, this video sermon is well worth a watch:

Download options at Hearing the Holy Spirit for Yourself – Keith Hazel.

I just had to share this quote with you, do pop by the blog I found it on to read the rest of the article.  The writer is speaking about a verse in 1 John which says essentially that the Holy Spirit is directly involved in giving us assurance of salvation.  There is some similar material in my book Raised With Christ, but to be honest, I think this guy says it more clearly than I did here, and much as I know many of my loyal readers would disagree, I am not ashamed to nail my colors to the mast on this point:

Notice that John isn’t saying if we are Christians, we know we have the Spirit; he is saying if we have the Spirit, we know that we are Christians.This reminds me of Acts 19:2, where Paul asks some men if they received the Spirit when they believed.  Paul is assuming they know whether Almighty God came upon them or not; an assumption we no longer make.  Lastly, there is the passage in Acts 8 where Simon goes to Samaria and leads many to Christ, but the apostles “…came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.  For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  Forget for a moment that this passage is theologically incredible.  For our purposes, just note that they knew the Holy Spirit hadn’t fallen on these believers.  They could tell that the Spirit hadn’t come upon them. Maybe Christians shouldn’t assume the Spirit is present and acting when there is no evidence.  According to the Bible we should be able to tell, at least some of the time.

via The Holy Spirit as Evidence of our Salvation « Scholarship in the Glory.  (emphasis added)

Here is the video, downloads and my notes from Terry Virgo’s second session at this month’s 300 Leaders event:

Downloads: mp3, video

In his first session, Terry spoke about the Spirit-filled church. This requires Spirit-filled people. We need to help people come into understanding, so they will be clear. Terry will almost always explain the Bible to people before praying for them to receive.

Acts 1:4.

V8 is called the key to understanding the book of Acts. The disciples had fallen short in terms of understanding, and loyalty, having run away. How did this group turn the world upside down? “You shall receive power” was the key.

The idea of the Spirit coming upon people was not new to them. They knew about Gideon hiding in his cave, and God coming to him and clothing him with power. Samuel poured oil on David and the Spirit came on him. Samson was a normal guy empowered by the Spirit. They asked him, where do you get your power? You don’t ask Arnie where he gets his power because of his muscles. But for Samson it wasn’t muscles, it was other than him. It was a mystery. Elisha is desperate to have the same Spirit that Elijah has. Joshua is given of the same Spirit from Moses. It happened throughout the history. Jesus was himself clothed with power at age 30. He moved with the power of the Spirit.

Many modern day Christians are unclear about how they fit with that. Can we anticipate the power coming on us? Many of us feel so powerless.

Many tell us we receive the Spirit at conversion. Others would say there is another experience. Terry saw years ago that Stott and Lloyd-Jones disagreed on this and thought, how can I understand this? But he found himself getting more and more thirsty. So he found a Pentecostal and asked for prayer.

The Bible tells us that the men who had been with Jesus for three years needed to be empowered. Some say but they were unique. But after them, we also see what happens to others in Acts. Some say but you don’t get doctrine from narrative. But the Bible tells us that ALL Scripture is profitable for instruction. The gospels are looking forward to Jesus baptising with the Spirit. The epistles look back and take for granted that they had been baptised both with water and the Spirit. We need the book of Acts to tell us what happened.

In Acts 8 we are told that the people believe and were baptised in response to Philip. They are converted. Peter and John came from Jerusalem and it was only then that the Holy Spirit fell on them. Their testimony would be “I was saved when Phillip preached, sometime later the Apostles came and laid hands on me then the Spirit came.”

In Acts 9 Saul was converted on the Damascus road, and was called a brother by Ananias, but it was through Ananias that he received the Spirit. Paul would have said, “I was saved then three days later I was filled with the Spirit.”

In Acts 10 faith arises in the hearts of gentiles at the house of Cornelius as they hear the gospel, and the Spirit fell on them.

In Acts 19 Paul asks “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Then they believe, get baptised, then he lays hands on them and the Spirit fell on them.

In all of these verses we see a second step, though it can happen on the same day. Many say when you become a Christian you have automatically received. But in Acts this is not the case. With that teaching tends to come an idea that we will gradually grow into being filled with the Spirit. Most people don’t claim to be full of the Spirit. But the Bible says “Have you received?” They would have said after being laid hands on “Yeh!” No idea of a gradual growth. Lloyd-Jones used to challenge people “where is it all?”

There is also a teaching that says years later, when you empty out God fills up. There is an idea of maturity, surrender to God. But that is not really what the Bible says about being filled with the Spirit. You don’t have to be mature first! It is like a general saying “go out and fight, and if you do really well next time we will give you a gun!” No, Jesus says get filled before you go out. Also the Pentecostal concept used to say that you had to “tarry.” People sometimes would say I have gone to tarrying meetings for years and just be waiting in meetings to speak in tongues. But that is not what the Scripture says. After Pentecost no one was ever told to do that! Peter and John didn’t tell the Samaritans to wait, they laid hands on him and they received.

John Wimber taught the release of the Spirt, saying you received it at conversion and later it is released in you. It is not spoken about in the Bible. They didn’t say “you obviously have everything, now wait and you will be released.” It is not release from within, it is falling upon!

The key verse is in John 7:37. It gives us the key about not having to tarry, and what our expectation should be. Jesus cries out “if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink.” It doesn’t say the Spirit was not yet given because they were not yet holy enough. Rather because Jesus was not glorified yet. Peter basically exposits this verse on the day of Pentecost. He declares that the Jesus who died, rose again and was glorified has now poured out the Spirit. The Spirit is freely given. We can receive the Spirit. If someone says to you “I don’t think I am worthy” “No you are not! You will never be!” It is a free gift.

Laying on of hands is Biblical, but not in every case. Not necessary. The promise is to you! Come and drink! Come and receive! Give people expectation. We receive the Spirit through hearing with faith. The first thing is “if anyone is thirsty” That is the only pre-requisite. It is possible to get complacent about it. God will sometimes break your heart and you will say “I can’t bear this any more!” It doesn’t say if anyone is curious let him come. It says if you are thirsty, COME to me. Not come to a man. It is biblical to lay on hands, but don’t look to the man who is praying for you, look to Jesus! We come to Him and drink! Rivers of living water comes from within.

Speaking in tongues is frequently associated with receiving the Spirit. We cannot say more than that. When Terry lays hands on people he expects people usually to speak in tongues. Sometimes people don’t receive tongues because a million voices in their head tell them they are making it up. But there is a relaxing and allowing the Spirit to fall on us that is needed. There is a transformation that comes when the Spirit is on us. A boldness to witness.

We must teach people and give them understanding. We must explain that God doesn’t speak in tongues, it is something we do. If you dont speak in tongues you wont speak in tongues. We take the initiative in faith. It is like the widow who is told to gather her vessels. She doesn’t pray over them saying “come oil” she pours the vessel and the oil comes. Peter is told to come. He doesn’t sit waiting, he gets up and walks. It was only as he stepped off the boat that he entered another dimension. Your mind is unfruitful when you speak in tongues. Dont try and analyse it. Wesley said “O for a Thousand tongues to sing” Your spirit is praying. Paul said he thanked God he spoke in tongues more than anyone.

Don’t just explain it. Preach to them so their faith is rising.

Come and drink. The promise is to you. It is free. We are not merely aiming to build a contemporary church. We are aiming to build churches where the Holy Spirit is there in power. We are aiming to build Spirit-filled churches. There is an ongoing filling. Acts 4 the apostles are filled again. In Ephesians 5 we are told to be being filled with the Spirit. Enjoy the presence of the Spirit. Be a Spirit-filled community. We come together to be filled again and again. Jesus promised us he would not leave us as orphans. He is with us. On the day of Pentecost Peter could have shouted out “he is back!”

At the recent Mobilise USA event, Tope Koleoso spoke in a seminar about receiving the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to listen to the audio of the session and some notes follow. Other audio is available from the Newfrontiers USA site.

1. The Mandate

• THE WELL John 4:14
• “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22
• “be filled with the Spirit”, Ephesians 5:18

2. The Means

Jesus is the – Baptiser in the Holy Spirit  John 1:33-34 (ESV)

JOHN 7:37  “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. . . This He said about the Holy Spirit”

3. The Moments

Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Peter explains, “This is that”

Their response to the sermon: what shall we do? (Acts 2:37)

What shall we do?

• Repent of your sins
• Be Baptised in water
• Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
• Be Added to the Church

(Acts 2:38)

Acts 8:14-17
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,
who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:14-17
Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 9:17
So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 10:44
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

Acts 19:6-7
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied

What we can learn

1. There is a separate event of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
2. A distinct evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is, speaking in tongues.
3. Jesus wanted all believers to be filled
4. The New Testament church expected Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

What about me?

• This is for you (John 7:37)
• He is still here – Today, until Jesus comes back

THE BENEFITS …. What can I expect from the Holy Spirit?

1. Direct communication with God (I Cor14:1)
2. You will be edified (Jude 20), 1Cor 14:4-stimulates faith
3. Experience Gods Love like never before (Rom5:5)
4. Power to conquer fears and habits 2Tim1:7; IJohn:4:18.
5. Demolishes doubt: (Eph. 1:13-14; John 16:13,14)
6. Calms inner turmoil and brings peace
7. Boldness (Acts 4:8-13)
8. Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12-14)
9. Prayer – Romans 8:26
10. Worship – 1 Corinthians 14:2
11. Warfare

How to receive the Holy Spirit

Three requirement (John 7:37-39)

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…..

Your part to do:
1.Be THIRSTY

2.COME to JESUS the Baptiser

3.DRINK

Why some people don’t receive
Fear

• Bad Teaching
• Bad experiences
• General fear of the unknown

LOVE MUST REPLACE FEAR

DOUBT

• Pessimism
• Feeling unworthy (Lack assurance of salvation)
• Worry about past sins or habits

Faith must replace Doubt

Be THIRSTY
It is for those who are thirsty
Thirsty – desperate for one thing – drink

Come to Jesus
If any thirst, come to me
He will receive you

Drink
By a voluntary act, you will receive within you

Jesus’ part – to give the Spirit
Your part – to actively receive by faith

One aspect that we haven’t talked much about is this: Barnabas may well have single-handedly prevented a damaging split in the early church between Antioch and Jerusalem. If you go back and read it, you will see that he was the ‘go-between’ for Peter and Paul-between Antioch and Jerusalem. It wasn’t always easy in that relationship but Barnabas had a foot in both camps. He was a blessing and was described as the ‘chief-mediator’ between those two great centers of the early church by one commentator (Conzelmann) I read.

You have to ask, “Where would the church have been without Barnabas?” He is incidentally believed to have been martyred on Cyprus.

What can we conclude about his life today? When your heart is all for God, as I’ve already said, opportunities to serve Him are not far behind. Barnabas didn’t think “Well, I really don’t have a role here. I’ll just passively watch as others do the work.” He got stuck in to the work of encouraging.

He was secure in who he was in God, he wasn’t looking for position or praise from other people. He was easily led, a joy to lead. But sometimes he was too easily led. Don’t be like that.

He was equally happy in the background or serving in the foreground as the Lord led. Sometimes God will lead you into the foreground, other times He’ll lead you away from the foreground and into the background. The challenge is: will you serve? Some people say, “I only want to be in the background.” But if God puts His hand on you and pulls you to the front, it’s as much a sin to resist that as it is to be someone who yearns for it. We mustn’t be those who resist what God is calling us to do. We mustn’t be those who desire status and position and glory.

It seems Barnabas was also an example of someone who served God despite putting family first before the church and before his ministry opportunities. I think that’s quite liberating for us. I would urge you, and the leaders feel very strongly about this, we must get our priorities right in life. I think Barnabas is an example of a man who did just that.

There are four key elements of a balanced, godly life. First: your relationship with God. There seems no doubt to me that Barnabas was close to God. It did say he was full of the Spirit. It was that closeness to God that sustained him and that came first in his life. How else could he have been so effective and so faithful? I’m sure he put his relationship with God at the top of that list. It’s easy for us to sometimes let other things get in the way of God.

Some of you probably expect me to say, “And then he put church next.” I know many places it’s God first, then the church. Actually, no, he put his family next , his actions demonstrated that. He was prepared to risk his whole future in church ministry and church leadership over his cousin. I think God honored him for that. I think it’s right to put family above church. We serve our family because of our relationship with God. God calls us to our families first, to bless our families, to serve them. They’re your first church.

Actually, the best way to bless your family is to bring them to a godly church and so Barnabas did have a role in church and he saw that as very important.

Of course he knew something of how to order his finances, he had a field that he could sell. But we see by that act of selling, his work came in pretty poor fourth place. No one’s going to get to the end of their life and say they wish they’d spent more time at the office. It’s not going to happen. Work is important. But chances are, you’ll go through several jobs in your life. Hopefully, you’ll stick with one family. Hopefully you’ll be committed to one church for a long time. Sometimes you will move to a different church, that can be a godly thing to do. I am so thrilled to be in the church that I joined in 1995 and to see what God is doing here is a real joy and a delight.

Finally, it was Jesus who changed Barnabas’ life. It was Jesus that Barnabas had met. Jesus who made good all of Barnabas’ mistakes, who covered up for his disagreements. It was Jesus who helped Barnabas to be strong, robust and to be such an inspiration for others. It was Jesus that comforted Barnabas and encouraged Barnabas so that he could encourage others.

It says in the Scriptures: God is the God of all comfort and He comforts us so that we can comfort others. Brothers and Sisters, if you remember nothing else from this message, remember this: Jesus would say to you this morning, “Be encouraged!” And you, though you may never be a Paul (I don’t believe Barnabas was any less successful because he wasn’t Paul ). You may never be a Paul, I may never be a Paul, but we can all be a Barnabas.

Barnabas is an encouragement to us in another way: Like so many heroes of the Bible, he wasn’t perfect. Don’t you find that encouraging? God is in the business of using servants who are not perfect, people who blow it, people who make mistakes. Maybe you’re sitting here this morning and you’ve mentally disqualified yourself from being used by God because of mistakes you’ve made in the past, sins you’ve committed in the past. I want to say to you, “There’s another chance for you!” We see in Galatians 2 that Barnabas makes a clear mistake. The context of this is about food. I believe eating together is very important. As I was thinking about this talk, I was thinking about all the people who have been like Barnabas in my life and there were many of them, some do stand out, people who really shaped my life. I could list them, but don’t really have the time to do that. One thing suddenly struck me about all of them, there is one thing they all have in common. All of them have eaten together with me. There’s something about eating together that communicates acceptance, love, and that builds trust, that gives people the right to sometimes even rebuke me. There’s a love that comes from that. That’s an interesting point; don’t underestimate the importance of eating together.

Barnabas and Peter were eating with the Gentiles, showing their acceptance of them. When some people came from Jerusalem, they were frightened of what they would say and Barnabas’s strength became his very weakness. He didn’t want to cause trouble, and it led to him being led astray by Peter. In this example, he was too easily led. We must remember that no leader can be relied upon to always get it right. So he withdrew.

Gal. 2:11-13 “And when Cephas(Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ”

In the past, Paul had needed Barnabas to encourage him and help him. Now, Barnabas needed Paul to rebuke him. This really was an example of the right boot of fellowship. Sometimes the most encouraging thing someone can do for you is tell you off, say “Come on, sort it out!” Real encouragers tell you off. The truth is this, in the church, we all need each other to sometimes cover our weaknesses, to look out for each other and sometimes to rebuke us, to correct us, to develop us. That’s what teamwork’s all about. We don’t have all the answers. So, Barnabas blew it, but was that the end of his ministry? No! It wasn’t at all!

A big row over a good principle
Next we see another thing that’s often described as a mistake in Barnabas’ life. He had a disagreement with Paul, you probably know the story. I wonder whether Barnabas had learned from his mistake of being too easily led and this time decided, “No, I am not going to allow Paul to make this mistake. I am going to stand up to him, to challenge him.” This argument almost becomes an argument about people versus mission and you see that sometimes in the church. Some people say, “Church is all about the people, we must care for them, we must look after them, we must encourage them, we must develop them.” Other people say, “No, it’s about the mission. We must get out there and get others.” What had happened was that John Mark had let them down in the mission. He was a leadership casualty. For fear he ran away, you know the story. Paul says, “He can’t come again.” But Barnabas says, “No, I am not prepared to discharge John Mark to the scrap-heap yet.”

If you’re an ex-pastor here this morning, God does not want to leave you on the scrap-heap. If you’re someone who feels like you’ve messed up your Christian walk, God does not want to leave you on the scrap-heap. Barnabas stands by John Mark partly because he’s a member of his family, a cousin, and he says, “I will put my family before my ministry. I will sacrifice ministering with Paul because I want to encourage this leadership casualty.”

There’s another lesson in this: God sovereignly directs our paths. What happened as a result of this strong argument? As a result of the argument, a number of things happen.

First of all, another apostolic team gets planted. Suddenly, we have 2 apostolic teams. Barnabas begins to lead his own team. But Barnabas is honored by Paul. It’s not that Barnabas becomes suddenly independent . Later on, in one of the letters, Paul speaks very specifically about Barnabas and what a blessing he was. As we’ve often said over the summer, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Even here in this instance, their disagreement, God works it around for good.

But what about the others involved in this? John Mark gets to write the first Gospel. He’s the author of the book of Mark. No doubt, his Gospel inspired Matthew and Luke to write, because we know they used his Gospel and it would seem he probably inspired John as well. Perhaps without Barnabas, we’d have no Gospels. John Mark is actually described as ‘useful’ by Paul later on.

Barnabas gets to lead. Some people think Barnabas disciples wrote a major chunk of the New Testament! Some even think he wrote the book of Hebrews- it certainly would be like him not to sign his name, but we don’t know that. That was an early tradition, but he might or might not have done that. And Paul gets to be Paul. What we see here is God sovereignly ordaining even a big disagreement and turning it around for His glory.

The Gift of Encouragement from Jubilee Church on Vimeo.

In Acts 13 Barnabas himself was encouraged by others. Remember the purpose of prophecy is encouragement. Remember when we say encouragement, we’re not just talking about a warm fuzzy feeling. We’re talking about sometimes being thrust out, our passage begins “and in the church of Antioch, there were prophets and teachers.” (Barnabas is at the lead of this list, he seems to be the church leader there.) “Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manean, a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work which I have called them.’ And after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.“ (Acts 13:1-3)

So he was now on the receiving end of a prophecy. You must learn to receive and to give. I hate to say it, but there are some Christians who just like to receive all the time. How’s the worship leader doing this morning? Well, I’m not sure I like that keyboard player as much as the one we had last week. Hm, that preacher, I like him. Some people like to receive all the time and never give. But actually there are some who like to give all the time and never receive. The truth is this: God is calling you and me to be those who receive, so that we can give. Jesus said this: “Freely you have received, freely give.” Amen!

An encouragement here, in the form this prophecy, thrusts out Barnabas and Paul. It’s very interesting; they’re propelled now, into their next phase of ministry.

At this point neither of them are given a real title or an office as such. They’re not called apostles yet, they’re not even described as elders. I suppose they’re fulfilling that role, but it doesn’t say that in the Scriptures. They are fulfilling a function by now. Barnabas is a prophet or a teacher; remember as it said at the beginning of that verse “in the church there were prophets and teachers.” I’ve said that I suspect that he was a prophet, for all kinds of reasons, I think he has this functional role.

An apostolic ministry, interestingly, has an element of both the prophetic and the teaching coming together as well as obviously that kind of pioneering, overseeing type of role. Barnabas seems to be coming from the prophetic angle and it seems pretty clear that Paul was coming from the teaching angle. We know that Paul was the teacher “Par excellence” of the New Testament. We have so much of his teaching recorded for us. And so the two of them together formed this first apostolic team.

The apostles were doing things in Jerusalem. But here now, a team is being thrust out. The emphasis here is not on the title, the emphasis is not on whether they’ve got a ‘ministry’ or a ‘role’. The emphasis is on what they are doing. Now Barnabas moves on to another phase of his relationship with Paul. Up until this moment, he’s really led Paul. It’s been very clear, Barnabas was at the top of the list. Indeed, when they are sent out, it says “Barnabas and Saul”. He could have said later on, “Well, the Holy Spirit mentioned my name first.” But instead, he encouraged a leader who would then surpass him and he went through an amazing transition with Paul.

John Piper says this of this phase of Barnabas’ life: “With this strategic investment in Saul’s life and career, Barnabas secured forever his secondary status in church history and I love him for it.” It’s an interesting point isn’t it?

As Piper also puts it: “A Biblical leader is humble and self-effacing, he looks for people with greater gifts than his own and pushes them forward.”

So, Barnabas begins to fade into Paul’s shadow. It’s Barnabas and Saul at the beginning. Barnabas is even called Zeus, the king of the gods, he might have liked that, I don’t know, the powerful one. Pretty quickly, it becomes Paul and Barnabas. Even in this very chapter at one point it’s just Paul and his companions. What’s your heart like? Are you looking for position? Are you looking for a title? Would you rejoice if that baby Christian that you’ve been encouraging a little bit suddenly leapfrogs over you and becomes a small group leader before you do? Or perhaps you never do become a small group leader because that’s not what God is calling you to. Would you be disappointed? Would you be jealous? Or would you be thinking, “Go for it! I’m so proud of that young man and I’m so thrilled that I had a part to play in propelling him/her into the ministry that God called them to.”

Romans 12:3 says “But by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to him.” What is your measure of faith? If you’re faithful in it, for sure, God may well increase it. But please don’t try to be something that God hasn’t gifted you to be. Sometimes in the world, people are promoted to the level of their incompetence. Have you heard that phrase? Someone who is a good deputy gets promoted to manager and you have to sometimes ask, even in the church, “Is it really all about Jesus?” I felt, as I was praying this morning, that there would be some here who would become a pastor. You’re an ex-pastor sitting here this morning because it didn’t work. Because actually God never wanted you to be out on your own in that way. He’s not finished with you, He’s got roles for you but you were never meant to do that and I would challenge you to please don’t hanker after position, don’t hanker after being like that person.

God doesn’t want you to be the next Terry Virgo or the next whoever. He just wants you to be you. You can fulfill a role that only you can fulfill. Barnabas was willing to be led as well as lead. Here at Jubilee, we have a need for many more leaders who will follow Barnabas’ example. We need many more leaders! People are coming to us; a crowd is being formed but that crowd must be shaped into a congregation, must be called to commitment, must be discipled, must be channeled into ministry. We need more leaders, brothers and sisters. We need leaders who will sign up first to be a follower. Who will be a servant and hence qualified to lead others? It’s about servant leadership, it’s not about self-fulfillment ‘I must have a role’. It’s about service of others, not about ‘my ministry’.

Interestingly, in the context of this switch that Barnabas has, finally he gets his title. He’s called an apostle in Acts 14. He does get his title but he doesn’t get to be the top dog. Barnabas is a real encouragement to us in this area. You and I can play a role without yearning for a position.

Very soon, Barnabas’ encouragement finds another outlet, another opportunity. We see, in Acts 11, that Barnabas begins to encourage a baby church. A few people don’t wait for the apostles to send them or tell them what to do, they run because of persecution and when they arrive in Antioch they begin to share the Gospel. They don’t wait for headquarters to instruct them, they get on with it. Then, in verse 22 the apostles hear of what’s been happening, people are becoming Christians and a church is beginning to form:

“The reports of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God he was glad. He exhorted them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. . .” (That’s the definition of encouragement) ” . . .for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.” (Acts 11:22-24.)

Barnabas here still has no job title, no position; but he is described as a trustworthy man. He also happens to be of the same nature, the same birth as this new group of believers. So the Jerusalem Apostles sent him to be their representative and to encourage this new church. Notice how he is described here: He is not full of himself like some people are, but he’s full of the Spirit and the Faith. Are you full of yourself, or are you full of Jesus?

What can we learn from this whole story, this whole episode? Well, first of all, we can learn not to always rely on our leaders to take the initiative. Sometimes people say “The church should be doing this”; “The church should be doing that”. But actually the Spirit guided these people through circumstances, and they just gossiped the gospel. People became Christians.

But here’s another thing, don’t assume that just because God’s hand is on you -Maybe God has begun to bless you, maybe a few people are becoming Christians – or some sort of fruit is happening in your ministry, don’t therefore assume that you’ve got it all sorted, that you don’t need any help. Seek out the help and advice of leaders.

When Barnabas came he added something into the mix. Barnabas came into this church and more blessing came. It said that many people came to know Jesus as a result. And that wasn’t just because Barnabas came and preached, it was because Barnabas encouraged that new church. Just one person with the gift of encouragement can dramatically change a whole church. What do these people do- these encouragers? They look for the evidence of the grace of God and they blow on it. When he saw the grace of God, he wasn’t jealous, he wasn’t a killjoy, he just blew on it. He inspired them to be faithful to the Lord. That’s what we need, isn’t it? We each need that, actually. And the truth is this: You and I need encouragement, but we can also give encouragement.

In the very next verse, what do we see? We see that Barnabas realizes there is an opportunity to encourage somebody else. And what does he do? It says he went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. And for a whole year they met with the church and taught to a great many people. What does he do? He encourages an emerging leader. Why does he get Paul? For two reasons: One, because he wants to develop Paul, he can see the gift in him, he sees that he needs an opportunity to learn how to serve but also because Barnabas recognizes he needs some help. He can’t do this on his own. He doesn’t think, “Oh great, this is my opportunity, I’ve got my own church now.” He thinks, “I need some help.”

If we believe Barnabas was a prophet, and I think he was, we now see that prophets help release other leaders. And if you have a role in church, maybe I’m speaking to some small group leaders here, you should be looking for someone who can fill that role. So perhaps you can do something else so that more ministry can happen. Or maybe your role is to encourage someone who will be able to do something that you never will be able to do. John Piper said “Barnabas was a maker of leaders.” You may never be a great leader. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could encourage someone who perhaps will do more than you ever will.

Barnabas will in fact from now on in his life, from this time on, will forever be defined by his relationship with Paul. And we can learn a lot from this relationship. It’s a remarkable relationship. Many so-called prophetic people are proud of being loners. They don’t connect with anyone. They feel “I’m an oddball; I don’t fit in.”. Not this one. Barnabas was not a loner. And I would ask you this morning, if you’re listening, who do you relate to? Who are you getting help from? Dare I say it, who are you offering help to? I would urge you, get involved in small groups. Don’t just sit here on a Sunday morning, week in, week out, and receive all this teaching, and enjoy the worship. No, get stuck into your small group life. Get stuck into the mid-week services, come for the prayer meetings. Learn how to be encouraged and how to encourage others.

To be continued

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Here is the continuation of an edited transcript of the above sermon which began yesterday:

Who did Barnabas Encourage?

First of all, and it may seem like a slightly funny place to start, he encouraged his leaders. Have you ever thought about that, that leaders need encouragement too? I know one or two of you are sitting here this morning thinking: “I want to be a leader?” Are you so sure? Leadership can be a real challenge. People that you love turn on you; people that you help sometimes disappear. It’s not easy sometimes. It’s a great privilege and it’s a great blessing. Leaders need encouragement. It’s quite literally about putting courage back into them sometimes when it has drained away. Barnabas encouraged his leaders, in this case by bringing them the money. The important point is this, they were encouraged and that’s why the called him the “Son of Encouragement”. Hebrews 13:17 says: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Brothers and sisters it’s a real delight to be part of the leadership team here at Jubilee, and I know the four elders very well. I can tell you this; they don’t groan about their work here, they love their work here because you do respond to them so well. But be encouraged to keep doing that.

Barnabas was all in, he wasn’t on the fringes, he was comitted. He gave because he believed in the vision. His example still inspires people today just as it did then. It inspires people to genuine, sacrificial giving. Just as he gave his field to the purposes of God. Unfortunately sometimes, just like in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, it may encourage people to give out of wrong motives. ‘Show me’ giving or giving to impress others, or, giving to get something back from God. I don’t believe Barnabas gave in order to get back from God. He gave because he loved God. He loved the vision.

Encouraging the needy
Barnabas gave in a sense to encourage or strengthen the needy. Sometimes I think when we give money directly to the poor, it’s quite difficult. He wanted to do it via the apostles, he trusted the apostles to distribute. But he did know what the money was going to be used for. So he spent himself on behalf of those who could never repay him.

What do we learn from this episode? I think I already said, big people do not need a big role or big title or big office in order to make a big impact.

But also, when your heart is sold out for God, as we see Barnabas’ was and as we will see as we go through the story of his life, opportunities to serve God soon follow.

During this phase of his life John Piper says of Barnabas that “Barnabas earned a reputation for caring for the underdog.” Maybe you feel like an underdog this morning. Well, God cares for you and there are those of us here that can care for you and lift you. That’s what Barnabas did, he wanted to respect and lift and honor people rather than tread all over them.

Encouraging a new convert
In Acts 9, Saul the persecutor becomes a Christian. Barnabas’ attitude is very different from the rest of the believers. The rest are rejecting Paul, they want nothing to do with him. They think he is probably a spy and that he’s going to arrest them. Even if he’s not that, they see him as perhaps a brash young man. Paul caused trouble wherever he went. Barnabas’ attitude was very simple “if I have been accepted by God, why would I not accept somebody else?” Barnabas accepts him and advocates for him with the apostles as it says in Acts 9:27 “Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he preached boldly in the name of Jesus.” You have to ask “Where would Paul have been without this help, without this encouragement from Barnabas?”

To be continued…

I have not forgotten my series on Feelings and Faith and will be returning to it shortly. But in the meantime, I want to share with you a sermon I preached over the summer. Video is available to watch online here or you can download both video and audio.  But thanks to the work of Kristen Keating I can share an edited transcript with you over the next few days  http://kekeating.wordpress.com/

This sermon is one that meant a lot to me, and to a number of listeners. It addresses a very important concept for Christians today to get hold of.  In the days of large churches where you can easily hide, and in the day of many professing Christians rejecting church altogether, this truth must once more come to the fore.  You need biblical encouragement if you want to mature as a Christian.  You need to learn to dispense biblical encouragement to others if you want to be obedient to Jesus command to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.  I truly believe that Jesus will be much more interested in the deep lasting impact you have made in the lives of a few choice people that he gave you to care for and strengthen than in how big a crowd you managed to gather.

I encourage you to allow God to speak to you, challenge, and convict you through this message.

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A prophetic dream

The  Scripture tells us that young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams. I still like to think of myself as young although the beginnings of gray hairs tell me otherwise.  But I am the right side of 40 just, so I was a little disconcerted recently when God spoke to me in a dream.  But there you go, it’s happening.  It’s  a funny way to start a sermon, I know, but I would like to share this dream with you.  It was a very vivid dream.  I was sitting in a theatre a little bit like this, but instead of it being a cinema, there was a stage there and the curtain was down.  The curtain lifted and I saw a few people from our church on the stage.  We were meeting in this theatre (don’t worry, I’m not suggesting we are about to move,  we’re not).   But you’ll see the point of this dream in a minute.

The worship was just about to begin but then some more people started coming in from stage left and stage right.  And a few more people came, and a few more people came, and suddenly the stage was full.  I heard God say this: Aim for a church where there are more people on stage than watching.

It was a bit like Jubilee’s International Day.   Remember that?  When all the Nigerians flooded the stage?  Now we’re not going to have a big choir here but what I am saying is that everyone has a role, everyone has a job to do.  If you’re looking for your role one of the things you can do is go to the serving desk and sign up.  I believe that is one of the ways you may need to respond to this word this morning.

What is encouragement

In Acts 4 we see Barnabas’ first appearance in Scripture as an early disciple. We read from verse 36:  “Then Joseph who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

Barnabas was a big man who didn’t need a big role to make a big difference. He came, he gave his money, and he was an encouragement.  He did not look for a position or a title before he began to play his part. The apostles named him “Son of Encouragement,” but interestingly that word Barnabas can also mean “Son of the Prophet”.  You might say “Why is that?”   We see that the purpose of prophecy, according to 1 Cor. 14, is to encourage, to comfort, to console, and to build up.  Sometimes true encouragement is actually an exhortation or rebuke.  It’s actually about purpose and mission.  It’s coming alongside someone “parakalesis” coming alongside someone to help them to a purpose, to a cause, to a mission.  It’s catching someone up in what God is doing.  Now Barnabas it seems was probably a prophet but we don’t see a single prophecy that Barnabas spoke recorded in Scripture.  But his character and his personality embodied these functions of the Holy Spirit.  Some people ask “Why are you so interested in the gifts of the Holy Spirit?   Why do you want prophecy amongst you?  Why do you want the Holy Spirit’s activity amongst you?”  The reason is very simple, we need encouragement we need strengthening, we need emboldening; we need to have courage put into us.  That’s really what encouragement means.  We need sometimes the right boot of fellowship, the provocation.  It’s not so much comforting and consoling as rousing, and causing to rise up.

Mark Driscoll says of this:  “The gift of encouragement involves motivating, encouraging and consoling others so that they mature in their walk with Christ.”  There’s a sort of encouragement that says “there, there, you’ll be alright” but there’s a sort of encouragement that leaves a person stronger, better, more robust, more able to follow Jesus and, dare I say it, more able to help others.

To be continued…

Gods purposes fulfilled through scattering. “Now those who had been scattered traveled as far as…” Acts 11:19ff

Dave was encouraged by a prophecy during the worship, “The greatest scattering is now before us. Together to be scattered for Gods glory.”

When God is about to initiate a major move forward, he does lots of things at the same time to prepare them for that. He arranged for Moses to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter, when there had been persecution. When Jesus came God had arranged that the Roman empire would allow good transportation would allow the gospel to spread.

In this passage, he allowed persecution to come so believers would be scattered. By his own direct intervention he converted the main persecutor to become a herald. He also change Peters mind. He gets things ready for the phase that is coming.

As another prophecy said tonight, God is changing the seating arrangements within our movement as a new chapter is about to start. God is arranging things so that the new phase will be successful.

Scattering is often a negative concept. But it is also right through the Bible a very positive concept. To fill the earth you have to scatter. The tower of Babel was built to stop them from having to scatter. They resisted gods plan. God then scattered in judgement what he intended to scatter in blessing.

Paul later tells us that it is God who has scattered people and determined their exact places to live. God has done this so we would reach out to him. In the great commission God basically said go be scattered to bring the gospel. God had said to scatter so much, but at last here in our verse this is finally happening.

Scattering at the right time is a good thing. There is a time to gather, and a time to scatter. When God told us to stop Stoneliegh, we were told that there had been a time to gather, now was a time to scatter. Since then we have seen a threefold increase in the number of churches.

This scattering in Acts came in three ways.

1. Apostolic initiative eg Peter and then Paul and Barnabus

2 Gifted evangelists with signs and wonders

3. Lots and lots of ordinary unnamed believes who had the freedom to take initiative. This was the biggest.

When these three are combined, God can cause exponential growth.

Organisations are described as functioning in two ways. Top down ie direction from the board or bottom up where initiatives come up and are rubber stamped

Actually we need to be led, but also a place where there is freedom as God directs individuals for the cause. We are to be scattered all over the place.
David Devenish said he constantly goes to places to follow up on initiatives taken by all kinds of individuals. Apostolic ministry follows up to lay good foundations. If you want to be a missionary do it where you are first. A plane ride won’t transform you into an evangelist. It seems that these people in Acts already saw it as there responsibility to spread the gospel where they are.

We should not just scatter geographically but also in infiltrating various jobs and roles that can help the spread of the gospel.

We are now poised for another scattering.

As a movement we are in transition from one apostolic sphere to many. That’s another form of scattering.

This next phase of scattering will lead to exponential growth that we can’t keep up with.

We all have a responsibility. Even in Acts the fulfillment was mainly through unnamed not famous people.

We need hundreds even thousands of individual initiatives. Paul kept saying I have no more room here, because others would continue the work.

Persecution sometimes causes real growth. It tends to only do that when there is only a some of our churches are being persecuted.

Scattering is of no use unless the hand of the Lord is on you. It’s his favor. Evident tangible presence of the Lord. Jesus promises to be with us as we gather in his name and as we go in his name.

Acts 13:11. Hand of the Lord was against a man who then went blind.

Apostolic oversight. When the news reached the apostles an apostolic delegate was set, i.e. Barnabus. Half the people that ever travel would have gone through Antioch. A massive city of the time around 500,000 people. Included Indians and Chinese.

Wisdom in the choice of person. Barnabus was also from Cyprus, so there was a natural thing to do. He saw evidence that grace was at work.

Barnabus was a brilliant team player. He needed to build a team, so went to get Paul. We must develop a healthy team player attitude. Where there is a rapid spread there is even more need for apostles teaching. People need go understand by revelation.
We must teach the grace of God. They taught for a year. Apostles showed how everything was pointing to Christ, they were all fulfilled in him, and now having been raised and glorified he is now reigning.

The teaching was that its It’s all in Christ. Antioch was famous for it’s nicknames. So Chrisitans were first called that there. Because of centring of everything in Christ. Apostolic mission protected churches from drifting off by causing thrum to see their place in purposes of Christ.

Prophetic direction. The effect of the word was to be concerned about the poor. Hugely important in the NT. It expresses the heart of God. It demonstrates the kingdom. It maintains unity. The desire was to sent it to their brothers.

What will hold us together? Visions, value, relationships, prophetic promise, and a heart for the poor in one anthers spheres. Our movement is marked by prophetic direction. Shaped by prophecy.

Let the nations be blessed as we take our responsibility to spread along with other apostolic groups. Right at the end Dave then called all the prophetic people to the front to be prayed for. It was a powerful time of releasing.

The next post comes from Straight to the Heart of Acts:

INTRODUCTION:
ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY GOD

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

In 30AD, Jesus of Nazareth looked to have been an utter failure. If you don’t understand that, then you will miss the message of the book of Acts. It is a record of survival through adversity, triumph against all odds, and victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. It is the story of a group of ordinary people who turned the tide of history through the power of their extraordinary God.

Jesus had failed to spread his message beyond the borders of Palestine. He had failed to convince the Jewish leaders that he was their long-awaited Messiah. He had even failed to keep the support of the rank-and-file people of Israel. He had been abandoned by the crowds, by his disciples, and even by God himself, and had died a shameful criminal’s death on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem. For all his early promise, by May 30AD he had lost all but a hundred and twenty of his followers, and Luke goes out of his way in the opening verses of Acts to tell us what an unimpressive bunch they were.

He stresses in verse eleven that they were “men of Galilee” – a group of uneducated barbarians from a far-flung corner of the Roman Empire. The gospel-writers Matthew, Mark and John were among the hundred and twenty, and their gospels betray their provincial mindset. They refer to the hub of their little world as the Sea of Galilee, whilst Luke, the sophisticated Christian doctor from Antioch, knew enough about the wider world to call it simply a Lake. Jesus’ vision for his Church to take the Gospel “to the ends of the earth” was not just stretching, but laughably over-sized.

As for their leader, Peter, and his fishing-partner John, Luke tells us plainly that they were “unschooled, ordinary men.” Their courage had failed them six weeks earlier on the night that Jesus was arrested, and verse six shows us that they still didn’t fully understand his mission. With generals like Peter and John presiding over the shattered remnants of his Kingdom army, Jesus’ mission looked to have been a colossal failure.

Yet the Christian faith didn’t die. Instead it grew, massively. The Gospel-message ran from house to house across Jerusalem, then exploded through the cities of Samaria, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy. It spread like wildfire across the Roman Empire, until its enemies complained that it had shaken the whole earth. Incredibly and inexplicably, the Christian Church refused to roll over and die. Instead it conquered the world.

It was this success which brought the believers to the attention of Theophilus, the man to whom Luke dedicates his gospel and the book of Acts. We do not know his exact identity – his name means Friend-of-God, so it could even be a poetic name for Christians in general – but there is strong evidence that he was the judge for Paul’s trial at Caesar’s court in Rome.

For a start, Luke ignores the activity of nine of the twelve apostles, and in the second half of Acts he ignores the other three as well. Although his book has become known as ‘The Acts of the Apostles’, its real focus is on the relative latecomer Paul, with detailed accounts of his missionary journeys, his arrest, his trials and his journey to Rome. It isn’t a biography, since it tells us neither the outcome of his trial nor how he eventually died, but it builds towards a cliff-hanger ending which leaves Paul awaiting judgment under house-arrest in Rome. This only makes sense if Luke was writing to provide background for Paul’s test-case trial of the Christian faith, and Luke confirms this by addressing his reader as “most excellent Theophilus,” which was the customary way for any Roman to address a judge in court.

This is much more convincing than the view that Acts is a history of the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem to “the ends of the earth,” in fulfilment of Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8. Rome wasn’t the ends of the earth, but the centre of it! She ruled the world from the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, which was Latin for the Middle-of-the-Earth Sea. The entire world revolved around her, even places at the true ends of the earth, such as Armenia and Britannia. Romans heard the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost itself, and Paul wrote to a strong church in Rome in 57AD, five years before he arrived there in person. Therefore Luke didn’t write Acts in 62AD to describe the Gospel’s arrival in Rome, but to guide a judge’s verdict at the palace which dominated the earth. The prisoner Paul was about to stand before Caesar’s court, and Judge Theophilus was about to pass his official imperial verdict over Paul and the Christian faith which had brought him there.

Luke gives Theophilus an outline of the Christian story so far. He tells him about the effect of the Gospel in Jerusalem (chapters 1-7), its spread to nearby Judea and Samaria (chapters 8-9), its acceptance by the Gentiles (chapters 10-12), its success in Asia Minor (chapters 13-15), its advance into Europe (chapters 16-20), and finally – with long speeches and careful attention to detail – the arrival of its leading exponent, Paul, in Rome (chapters 21-28). He does so using the best Greek in the New Testament, structuring his brief like the great Greek historians Herodotus, Xenophon and Thucydides, on the basis of painstaking interviews with eye-witnesses. As a result, the book of Acts was extremely successful: Theophilus ruled that Paul was innocent, and released him to continue his church-planting ministry.

Luke wrote this book for Theophilus, but he also filled it with essential, foundational teaching for any Christian who reads it today. We live in a world where the Church’s mission can still feel as overwhelming and unattainable as ever. In the West, the Gospel has been sidelined, church attendance has haemorrhaged, and society at large views Christianity as the outdated and irrelevant creed of a foolish die-hard few. In parts of the world where church attendance is still strong, Christians have largely failed to transform the nations in which they live. Ours is still a world where Jesus’ vision looks completely mismatched to his ragged bunch of followers. Yet Acts gives ordinary Christians his blueprint for success – a much-needed manual from their extraordinary God.

If you feel like a very ordinary Christian, then this should strike you as very good news indeed. Luke wrote Acts as far more than a legal brief for one of Caesar’s judges in Rome. He wrote it as the story of ordinary Christians in the past, to encourage and equip ordinary Christians in the present. He wrote it to inform you, amaze you, excite you and enthral you, but most of all he wrote it to enlist you. The Church’s great mission is by no means over, and you have a role which is uniquely yours to play.

So hold on to your seat and get ready for the breathtaking message of the book of Acts. If you are an ordinary person, then this book is for you: it is a call to ride to victory on the shoulders of your extraordinary God.

The following sermon is by Ed Stetzer preaching at Jubilee Church. The video follows my brief notes.

Engaging the culture: What does it mean for us to be on mission ?

In Acts 17 Paul finds a space within the culture to proclaim the gospel. He uses this as a bridge to share Jesus. We want to avoid being stained by the world. We must not do certain things and go certain places. But it is also true that holiness is not about being separated from people. We must engage.

Paul acknowledged their spiritual questions. Just like today the world was believing in everything. Paul understands their views and then bring Jesus. He also did this in Acts 13. Here he was speaking with the Jews and he starts in a very different place, but ends in exactly the same way. The pattern is building a bridge from culture to a bloody cross and an empty tomb. Clear and uncompromising proclamation. See Acts 14:11 in Lystra he speaks of seasons and this tied in with their religion. All people ask why are we here and what must we do? Paul did not adopt their religious beliefs or say they were ok, however. He calls them to repentance. What people find in their quest is not good. Paul was troubled. Jesus is better than the idols. Context matters. The how of ministry is in some ways determined by the who when and where of people. Look to understand the actual questions people are asking. Be ready to give an answer.

Paul understood Athens. Culture is their air we breathe. We cannot preach against culture. It’s just where we live. We don’t adopt everything. There are some things in every culture that are positive and we should adopt. Eg family. Other things we can adapt, eg clothing and music. We can live different and look similar to the world. And there are parts of every culture we must reject. Jude 3 tells us to contend for our faith. Eg what Jesus does for us. 1 Corinthians 9:22. Says become all things to all people. So we don’t compromise but we do contextualize. Some people all they do is contend. Others only contextualize and change beliefs so they seem more tolerant and less judgmental. We should cry out give me London or I die.

Acknowledged the positive and rebuked the negative things. We inhabit culture so we can be agents of reconciliation. Many go to far and never stand for the truth. But we mustn’t go the other way and not go far enough. We don’t own the gospel so we can’t change it. We can change our music style or clothing, but the message is unchanging. Paul proclaims to them. He quotes a poet. It would be like us quoting a song or film. Later he says they are ignorant. He affirms them first, but says the things people don’t want to hear. The world will never like the gospel. The world has no problem if we believe in Jesus it has a problem that we think they should to. But Jesus says no one comes to God except through him. Cross is a stumbling point. Every religion says Keller is “I obey therefore I am accepted,” but we say “I am accepted therefore I obey.” Many apparent Christians have accepted moralism not Jesus. God commands everyone to repent. People are far from God but hungry for him. People consistently create gods for themselves. We live in a world that is deeply idolatrous. They will always hate our gospel but we must proclaim it anyway.

We must inhabit and engage the gospel with Jesus. Join Jesus in his mission to seek and save the lost. Can we live sent? Go to our neighbours learn who they are and what they believe and tell them Jesus loves then and died for them and wants a relationship with then?

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I preached this message at Jubilee Church a little over a week ago. It was part of our series from Acts and based on Stephen’s Martyrdom from Acts 6 and 7. Brief notes follow the video.

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Till now, Acts had been a time of glorious growth and excitement power. Their friend had RISEN AGAIN and been glorified. All of their sermons in Acts were about this wonderful truth. MOST exciting, most GLORIOUS message MUST share caught up on a wonderful mission. It is almost breathless…the “and” of God.

“And Steven full of grace of power was doing signs and wonders” v8

Even the one appointed to do practical jobs had the SPIRITS power. One might almost have been convinced that it was all going to be fantastic now. It is a bit like that in a growing church, especially if a lot of young people around (i.e. you are not experiencing much sickness and death.) Caught up in what God doing. This one healed. That one saved. That one got a new job. No one can hurt us. We could kid ourselves that life is just fantastic for everyone. My son George even when he is upset says “but I still love my life dad!” I LOVE Jubilee life!

In Acts no significant setbacks so far, despite some hints of greater opposition to come. That was about to change. Joys and challenges, theology must have both. In the crowd of joy can feel as if you are only one here is in pain and a challenging situation. Maybe you are worried that you can’t feel God.

Jesus promised us that in this world we will have troubles. He always keeps his promises, but I don’t hear too many people naming and claiming that one!

Imagine if you will Philip and Steven being called by God:

“Hy guys, couple of jobs for you. One of you to be a great evangelist and caught up in a Holy Spirit transporter. Both mentioned in the Bible for all time. One of you gets to be an inspiration for thousands of martyrs”

Martyr is Greek word for witness. Amazing to realise that so many people died for bearing witness to Christ the meaning of the word changed! 20th century more than any previous! Would Steven have chosen that path?

Like every Christian, he had trusted his life into God’s hands. We don’t get to choose when life suddenly gets “interesting.” It was not because he sinned that it happened to him.

The challenge comes because VAST difference between the people of God and the world:

People of God: v 8 grace, power, V10 wisdom, Spirit

Contrast World: synagogue- religious people often hate us most true even today. “Freedman” arrogant claim that their life showed to be false: slaves of legalism. Dispute, withstand, secretive, deceptive, stirring up, VIOLENT. The violence of the so-called “free” continues today hatred of the so called “intolerant” ie us!

One more thing OBLIVIOUS to God! His face like an angel and all they can think of is killing him. Be not deceived, such an attitude is in the heart of everyone who rejects Christ, it just hides. IF we are honest such evil lies within our old selves too and we have to fight it today. The Bible says we all hate God and choose our own way. Christians are not better in themselves, just saved by Jesus!

Steven is snatched and given a chance to speak his defense. He has one eye on his captors, but one on the believers who are listening, wants them to know they are caught up in the people of God. On a mission together started way before them, won’t stop whatever happens to him, and will continue way after them.

God uses individuals to bless the many. History is always about the story of significant people that impacted the whole. This is the stuff of culture, of identity. In England, we would hear of Kings and Queens, of Robin Hood, and Greatest Briton Winston Churchill who embodied everything British—standing alone against a European threat. Greatest African Nelson Mandella South Africa.Christians belong to another people, Abrahams children, the people of faith.

The “Ands” of God, and the “Buts”

Chapter 7
Abraham: AND God of glory appeared, sent him. BUT he never got an inheritance, not even a foot. Promised his people would first be slaves then inherit. Sometimes the but is just about God’s sovereign timing.

V9 Joseph His BUT came first, as he was sold into Egypt and yet we see GOD was with him and the whole known world were saved from famine. Sometimes the but is caused by other’s jealousy and hatred.

Moses was beautiful, saved as a young child, well educated BUT his foolish actions sin of MURDER led to his first 40 years in the wilderness. – Sometimes the “but” is our own fault. Maybe you are struggling with sin. Porn. Murder abortion. Maybe guy left a woman feeling she had no choice.

God’s grace doesn’t not forsake him, however, GOD loves choosing the rejected, the hated like Moses and using them to bring his salvation. God can use YOU to do the same. No matter what buts you have experienced.

V51 Steven is BRAVE and CONFRONTS the people with their rebellion. Just as they were with Moses, and other heroes of faith they were to that day, they had KILLED the Righteous one! He was stoned for his efforts. Someone once said that the trouble with Western christians today is that no one wants to kill them for their words.

What gave Stephen this boldness? What helps the people of God fight thru and persevere despite the many troubles that come their way?

It’s very simple: JESUS. As Tope said last week “Jesus is better” we show He is better than health when we praise him despite our health being taken away. He is better than money when we can still be generous with it and praise him when our budget is under incredible pressure. He is better than the esteem of people, when we are not afraid to risk the rejection of men but honor Jesus in front of them. At work it is hard to share gospel. Friendship. Time needed.

HE is better than freedom if we are willing to risk being imprisoned for him. Hugh palmer Better than life if we look forward to being with him for ever.

It really is all about Jesus. To live is Christ and to die is gain…

Notice the wonderful grace of God. Faced with certain death, Steven is granted a wonderful glimpse of heaven and the glorious Jesus waiting for him. Many would want the same, “prove yourself to me, Jesus” and yet this is given to one who already has faith. It IS a comfort to him, it DOES lift him up, but he has already passed the test that this situation posed to him:

“Will you honor me and be faithful to the mission I have called you to, even when people are against you and I feel far away?”

IT is to those who are seeking him, and being faithful to what they know of him that Jesus will reveal himself more and more. In that revealing, we can know GOD is WITH US, and so we can do ALL THINGS through him who strengthens us! God is faithful hold onto Jesus. Jesus sees the joyful crowd and the one who is suffering.

And so, as a faithful servant who had accomplished EVERYTHING God had for him to do, Steven goes home. The wonderful truth is that this is NOT the end of Stevens story!

As he prays for forgiveness for his tormenters, he could not have known how wonderfully that prayer would be answered: Paul the apostle was there, and would become the greatest missionary the world has known!

Chapter 8
The death of Steven emboldened the persecutors, and suddenly it was open season on Christians. But, far from depressing them, the scattered went about preaching the word. In fact it was this that led to the gospel breaking out of Judea. No wonder people have said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

British martyrs who said that they had lit a candle that will never go out. As we listen to this story of Stephen does it not make us want to be faithful in the midst of the relatively minor trials we face now, or will face?

Does it not challenge us to conquer our fears and become a missional people?

Does it not encourage us that the same Jesus is WITH US? We live by him… nothing will separate us life nor death, suffering, or delight. All things work together.

Do both and say he is faithful then you are mature. Walking with him. Chose difficult root so you are suffering for Christ.

Tope Koleoso preached the following sermon entitled “A Call to Evangelism” yesterday. It marks the start of a new series at Jubilee that you can follow on our sermons page.

If you have ever thought that the book of Acts must be more than just a story of the beginning of the Church, then this will be a good series for you to watch or listen to. We believe that this book is something of a model of what churches should aim to be like. Here are a few quotes from the sermon:

• Matt Chandler has become an example for Christians the world over of how to suffer well.
• If you take the resurrection away from Christianity, you have nothing left.
• We are to teach what Jesus taught. We are to do what Jesus did. He cared for the poor and was a friend of sinners.
• Are you ashamed of the gospel or just careless about people?
• Social gospel cares for the poor. Prosperity gospel cares for me. Green gospel cares for the earth. Charismatic gospel cares about tongues.
• The real gospel has Jesus at the center.

By Tope Koleoso
17 January
download video or download audio

It’s the turn of Matt Kottman, the pastor of Calvery Chapel Leatherhead, UK who is both charismatic and judging from his sermon on Ephesians 1:3-6 is reformed as well, to guest blog during my break:

I was reading this morning in Acts 16, and I thought I’d share something that stood out to me in the text.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:9-10)
What does it mean to help someone? There are many ways in which we can offer help (or even things that we perceive as helpful that are actually unhelpful). What caught my eye here was a view into the biblical theology of real help. To really help someone is to tend to their ‘realest’ need. For example, we can help someone who has a headache by giving them paracetamol. But whether that actually is helping them is not immediately clear. If their headache is simply a symptom of a much greater problem, and the paracetamol only relieves the symptom but ignores the true need so that the person being helped can ignore the urgency of their real need, and thus we haven’t actually helped them. In fact, we have given them a drug with which to escape the reality of a pressing need.

I’m not implying paracetamol is bad, but I say this to illustrate a point. Sometimes we think people’s greatest needs are comfort, health, or some social or emotional need.. If we make our primary occupation meeting these needs in an effort to be helpful, we can miss the great need.

The great need is the gospel, and the realest help for that need is for the gospel to be preached to them. The Apostle Paul understood this. The man appeared in the vision and said ‘help us’. Paul and his companions concluded that the best help was to preach the gospel to them. The gospel addresses the core of every problem that people face. If we are consumed with medicating, then we never come around to the healing that only the gospel can bring (Isaiah 53:5).

I do not discount the reality that the preaching of the gospel is often partnered with meeting needs socially/physically. However, if we think we are helping anyone with what we do, and what we are doing does not involve the gospel, then at best we have given the one we are trying to help a false security. Should we help people socially/physically? Absolutely, however the core must be the cross of Jesus and the message must be the cross of Jesus and our ‘help’ is then only a shadow of the real help that only Jesus can give.

One critical discussion point in New Testament theology surrounds the purpose of the book of Acts. Many think it is just in the Bible to tell us how the church was formed. But 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that every part of the Bible is intended to teach us doctrine and practice. Also, Acts shows many signs of being an idealized account of early church history, and thus, I have always believed that Acts was intended as a model for us today.

Theologians call these two views of Acts “formative” vs “normative.” Marcus Honesysett takes this point up and says:

“But more importantly why should formative and normative be exclusive categories? If God worked in particular ways to establish churches and the worldwide missionary endeavor, would it be so very strange if he continues to do so? Is it not better to say that what was formative for missions and church-planting should generally be normative for missions and church-planting? If we don’t see it in our situations today, it is our situation and experience that needs to be aligned to the New Testament pattern, not the other way round. The main difficulty I have with the formative-not-normative argument is that it leaves me with the freedom to decide which bits I should apply as relevant today and which bits I can avoid. I don’t think Luke wants us to decide what to apply; I think Luke wants us to apply all of it.”

UPDATE- I have found the original source and as it is only now availble on the wayback machine include a copy here.
———

The Doctor thinks we are crazy if we reject the notion of God intervenng directly in human history today. This quote makes me want to pray more for him to stretch out his hand and act:

‘What is being taught in Christendom today is this, that since we have got the New Testament canon, since we have got the Word now, we do not need these direct interventions, we do not need God to speak to us directly, as He spoke to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and these patriarchs. We have got the Word now! Is this superior to the direct speech of God? I think we are mad! There is no other word for this. We are mad.

We are meant to be in a superior position to every Old Testament saint because of what has happened in our blessed Lord and Saviour! But this teaching would have us believe that we do not need this direct contact with God now, and that all that has come to an end since the formation of the New Testament canon…….remember that the great point of the whole teaching of the Bible, of all you can deduce from it, is to tell you that God is a God who acts. And our only hope this afternoon is that this is still true. He has not finished acting. He is going on….There is only one hope. That is that He is still the living and the acting God. Christ is at His right hand, and He is seated and waiting until His enemies should be made His footstool…….

I have been defending the faith – and people have praised me for doing it. Rubbish! What a miserable failure it has all been! From now on I am determined to do one thing only, and that is to give God no rest nor peace, until He does prove Himself and show Himself. I have expended so much energy in reasoning with the people about this faith. We have got to do that, it is part of preaching. But if we stop at that it will avail us nothing. But what I now am concerned about and I am concentrating on is this – asking God to show Himself, to do something,to give this touch, this manifestation of power. Nothing else will even make people listen to us. ….Nothing is going to call the attention of the masses of the people to the truth of this faith save a great phenomenon, such as the phenomenon of the day of Pentecost, the phenomenon of any one of the great revivals, the phenomenon of a single changed life. This is something that always arrests attention, maybe curiosity – what does it matter? The people come and listen……

We must not be content until we have had some manifestation of the activity of God. We must concentrate on this. This is my plea, that we concentrate on this, because it is the great message of the Bible……. Let us put it like this: Do we really believe that God can still act? That is the question; that is the ultimate challenge. Or have we, for theological or some other reasons, excluded the very possibility? Here is the crucial matter. Do we individually and personally really believe that God still acts, can act and will act – in individuals, in groups of individuals, in churches, localities, perhaps even in countries? Do we believe that He is as capable of doing that today as He was in ancient times – the Old Testament, the New Testament times, the book of Acts, Protestant Reformation, Puritans, Methodist Awakening, 1859, 1904-5? Do we really believe that He can still do it? You see, it is ultimately what you believe about God. If He is the great Jehovah – I am that I am, I am that I shall be, unchanged, unchanging, unchangeable, the everlasting and eternal God – well, He can still do it.

=====COPY OF ORIGINAL SOURCE AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE=============

The Evangelical Magazine of Wales April 1981

Magazine Index

THE LIVING GOD

D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES

Each year since its inception in 1955 the Doctor attended the annual Ministers’ Conference unless prevented from so doing by ill-health or absence from the country. He would chair the open discussions and bring the Conference to a memorable conclusion with a closing address. Here is one such address, delivered in June 1971, but still relevant.

I THANK God for this privilege of being allowed to do this year by year. I always feel it is a great responsibility, and yet it is, as I say, a very great pleasure and I am deeply grateful.

The remark that I want to try to give to you is in many ways a continuation of what we were discussing together on Monday night. The emphasis was that our troubles are mainly due to the fact that there is a lack of life amongst us. Ultimately all our problems can more or less be traced back to that – a lack of life. Now I want to go on from there to ask the question, Why is there this lack of life? Or at any rate, what is the main cause? If I were asked to name one cause, what is it? And I for myself would not hesitate to answer that it is due to a lack of a realization that God is a living God. We are not only in trouble about life in ourselves; we seem at times to forget that there is life in God.

It is this neglect of the living God – the God who acts. That is why I asked our friend Mr. Swann to read that portion of Scripture to us (Acts 13:24-42), because it is one of the many summaries that you have in the Bible that brings out this great point. Have you noticed how that so frequently in the Old Testament and in the New, when there is a crisis, when there is trouble, what the man of God does is to give a review of history. The psalmist does it constantly. You have several instances of it here in this book: Stephen did it in his great defence; Paul does it here in Antioch in Pisidia. A review, a grand review! Why? Just because it brings out the main element.

I feel that, as in the secular world, our greatest danger in the spiritual world is to miss the wood because of the trees. This is a perpetual thing. We are obsessed by details, over-concerned about particulars, and our greatest danger of all is to miss this whole, this grand whole, because of our inordinate preoccupation with these particular trees. I feel that at a time like this, and especially in these conditions, this is perhaps our greatest need. Our discussion which has just finished is, I think, an instance of it. It is inevitable. We cannot help this because we are in the flesh still. But I believe we have to be very careful about it, especially because it ultimately leads to the position in which (though it sounds almost incredible) our greatest sin of all is to fail to realize that God is an acting God – He does act.

Our whole position depends upon that: God’s action in the past, God’s action in the present, God’s action in the future. Now I believe it is important that we should analyse for a moment the ways in which we have tended to forget that God is a God who acts. One, of course, is the danger always of religion. Religion is generally the greatest enemy of the Christian faith. To be a religious person is one of the greatest hindrances to becoming a Christian, because it gives certain satisfactions. And we know today that, speaking of the churches in general in this land, there are congregations with an alarming percentage of people who are religious but who are not Christians. Religion is dangerous, you see, for this reason, that it is always something that puts emphasis upon our activities, our practices – we practise religion. And thereby we tend to think that it is entirely a matter of our activities, our conduct and behaviour, with the result that God is nearly always forgotten – taken for granted, of course, but therefore forgotten.

Then another cause of this – which comes a little bit nearer to us, speaking as evangelical brethren – is that we become so immersed in our activities that we do not stop to think what we are doing, or why we are doing it. Professionalism is the greatest curse of the minister. And although we are born-again men, we are ever in danger of becoming professionals. We are involved in preparation of sermons and preaching them. We are announced to do it; it is a part of the machine. And we have pastoral duties, funerals to take and marriages. The pastor is a very busy man – and this has to go on and on and on. As I think I was saying on Monday night in that story about Wilberforce, one of the easiest things of all is for a man to forget his own soul and to forget God. Of course, he still gets on his knees mechanically and says his prayers, but sometimes he stops at that. Even praying is part of a routine, part of the thing to do, and there is no realization of the living God, this God who acts. So then, that is one of the causes why we are constantly falling into this particular error.

Another one, of course, and a very prolific one, is false evangelism. We are all familiar with this; we have all seen it, perhaps taken part in it. When I talk about false evangelism, I mean that type of evangelism which conceives of itself primarily as a matter of organizing a campaign. The church is losing numbers. What can we do? We can hold a campaign. You decide who to have as your missioner, and so on. The whole outlook is one of activity – what can we do? We must have a campaign. Or if you are eager young people, it is a part of the outlook and the routine, and certain students go on a campaign and decide which town to attack and to evangelize, and so on. That is the mentality. This is the way in which the thinking takes place.

NOW … AND THEN

Now, you know, we have dealt with this many times in this conference. But there has been a very great departure here from what used to be the custom and the habit of our fathers. I do not mean our immediate fathers; I mean our great-great-great-grandfathers. You have to go back a long time. You see, when things were not going well in the churches, they reacted in a very different way. What they did was to say: ‘What’s the matter? Why has God left us? Have we offended Him? There must be some cause for this.’ So the minister and deacons would talk together and they would decide to call a day of prayer and humiliation. Humiliation was the word used – prayer and humiliation, sometimes accompanied by fasting. And they would tell God. They felt that they had wounded Him and hurt Him, that He was obviously turning His back on them like a wayfaring man. They would acknowledge and confess their sins and they would plead with Him to come back. That was their way. But, you see, that has gone, and it has been missing from the background of most who are troubled here today. Many of us, most of us by now probably, have seen the error of all this. But that has been our background, and these things tend to go on influencing us even though we have seen they are wrong.

Well then, what makes it so terrible is this, that when these arrangements are made and the organizations are set up and they have their committees to deal with this and that, generally, towards the end of the meeting, somebody will say: ‘Ah well, of course, we must have some prayer backing.’ Prayer backing! God as an afterthought! So you set up a subcommittee for prayer. And it is generally an afterthought, the last thing. You see, the whole approach is in terms of what man can do and human activity. God is only remembered almost casually at the end, and in a perfunctory manner. Then in the actual carrying out of the evangelism, the same thing comes in. The controlling idea has been this. Here is a statement made of the gospel. The people are asked to believe this and to receive it. And if they do so, they are told they are Christians. They take a decision, or they sign a form or a book or do something else. The whole emphasis again is, you see, upon man, upon man’s response. A number of doctrines are put before him, and he is asked to receive them and to accept them and to believe them, and he is assured that if he does so he is a Christian. Now we know that that is Roman Catholic teaching. Their view is that what a man does is to accept the body of doctrine and of dogma that is put before him.

It seems to me that evangelicals in this country, speaking very generally, have been doing precisely the same thing. It is put not so much in terms of ‘coming into contact with the living God’, as of accepting a number of propositions. If you accept those, you are a Christian. ‘Do you believe these things? If you do, all is well.’ Now again, you see, the departure from the old evangelicalism is quite alarming. There you read, in biographies and church histories and so on, of men coming under conviction of sin, and perhaps it would last a long time. John Bunyan was eighteen months in tremendous agony of soul, searching for God. Now I have often heard evangelical people saying today that this was all wrong, that these people were ignorant. Why didn’t they show the man salvation? Why eighteen months of repentance? He could be put right quite simply. Some evangelical organizations could put this man right in a matter of a few seconds. There is a verse – and a verse – one, two, three, four, five – got it all! But you see, the point then was that men conceived of salvation as coming to a knowledge of the living God, not accepting a number of propositions. So while the emphasis is on accepting a number of propositions or a statement, God is really forgotten. I know they all believe in God, they may make statements about God. But what is never brought out is that the essence of this matter is a meeting with God – doing business with God.

The old preachers, you see, brought this out very well. I remember having a most excellent illustration of this in my first year in the ministry in 1927. I had the great privilege of preaching on that occasion with a great old preacher in South Wales, called W. E. Prytherch. We were preaching together at Pyle in Glamorgan, and I had to preach first. The old man went up after me. He would not preach, but he said that I had stated the gospel and that he had a function to perform. And he said that he was just a little agent representing a great master, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what he told the people was this – he didn’t simply ask the people to believe what I had been saying-he put it like this: ‘This is what I am here for-to tell you that Jesus Christ is in the office now. Come and see Him – the Person – go to your office.’ With a break in his voice – and what an extraordinary voice it was – he said, ‘Go to your office.’ Well, it was the personal encounter. That is the thing that I am concerned to emphasize. We, in our false views of evangelism, tend to put our stress upon the acceptance of a number of statements, and we are then incidentally forgetting God, and forgetting that the main thing is the activity of God.

APOLOGETICS?

But then, coming still nearer to our subject, I have a terrible feeling – and it is terrible, because I am one of the chiefest of the sinners – that nothing has so caused us to forget God and to forget the living, acting God, as our concern about apologetics. We have regarded ourselves as the defenders, the guardians, the custodians of the faith. We are that of course, but I am afraid that we have often stopped at that, and we have given the whole of our time and energy to defending the faith, defending the propositions- and forgetting God. Now you see, it is all a question of balance. We have got to indulge in apologetics. But what worries me, as I look back across my life, is that I have probably given too much time and attention to apologetics. Thirty years ago it was still more necessary than now. It is always necessary, but then we were still fighting the old liberalism up to a point. And quite unconsciously one could be found a sort of an apologete and no more. God was really forgotten, and one got engaged in endless discussions and debates. You were defending the truth at this point and that point, and safeguarding the whole position, steadying the ark and putting your hands on it to steady it – forgetting God! I am quite sure of it, and I plead guilty to it myself. One often indulged in these apologetics in a more or less carnal manner, and one enjoyed scoring points off the other side. But the terrible thing was that God tended to be forgotten. So let us be very careful about this matter of apologetics. Let us keep it in its place. I am almost coming to the conclusion that the only place that apologetics should have is briefly in an introduction to a sermon. If you spend the whole of your time on apologetics, you are really not preaching the gospel. Start with it if you like and just do a little demolition work; but do not pat yourself on the back and go home and have a wonderful meal because you have just pulled down a rotten building! The question is: Have you put anything up? The danger of being negative! And the danger of feeling ‘It’s our gospel, my church I am protecting, my interests’ – and forgetting God!

Or then, still more recently, something else has been happening, which has aggravated this whole tendency to forget God. And this is the new and increasing preoccupation with what is called in general ‘the application of the gospel’. Now we are creatures, you see, of reaction. The charge that has been brought for many years against those of us who are evangelical is that we have taken no interest in social and political conditions. This has been the constant attack against us. All our interest was in our little personal souls and their salvation – forgetting the world. We have not had a social emphasis. This attack, of course, was made for years and years upon us. I remember very well in about 1947 reading a book by Dr. Carl Henry, soon afterwards the editor of Christianity Today. He wrote a book with the title of The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, and I read this with great interest. He tells us that the lost note in Fundamentalism was this lack of social interest. I remember feeling at the time what a serious misjudgment this was, what an utterly false diagnosis. He was dealing with American Fundamentalism; and he said the missing note in American Fundamentalism was this lack of a social interest. I remember writing to him at the time and discussing it with him afterwards and venturing to suggest to him that he had missed the point, and that the real trouble – the missing note in American Fundamentalism as I have met it and known it – was a lack of spirituality, a carnality, professional evangelism, professional apologetics. That was the thing that appalled me when I first met American Fundamentalism – the sheer carnality of the outlook. They were more like business men than Christian men.

Well now, you see, the more intellectual men began to react to this criticism, and they said: ‘We must bring in this note!’ And they have been doing so ever since. So that now it is almost the controlling idea – Christian philosophy! You know, it has been going for a long time in Holland. It was started there by Professors Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven. And this is a teaching which talks about Christian politics, Christian medicine, even Christian mathematics, Christian everything! It is this idea of law and of spheres, and so on. Well now, this has come down in many, many different ways, sometimes almost purely philosophically. I remember attending a conference in the South of France in 1953. And, to be honest and to be helpful, I have got to say this: I had to keep on reminding myself that I was in a Christian conference! I had to remind myself of it, because all the papers were entirely philosophical, and the arguments and disputations were almost entirely on that level. There was virtually no prayer at all. It was all a question of papers and of discussions, but it was a Calvinistic conference.

‘CHRISTIANITY AND………’

This is the thing that has now come in like a flood into evangelicalism, particularly in England. Everybody is talking about the Christian attitude towards this and that. I happened the other day casually to pick up the syllabus of a well-known Christian organization, and I noticed that the next two meetings are to be on these things. The first is to be on ‘The Christian attitude towards strikes’, and the other on ‘The Christian attitude towards art’. You see, this is the thing! We have been missing this. And some of them press it so far as to say that if you want to evangelize the modern world, you have got to know something about politics, you have got to know something about art, you have got to know something about literature, you have got to know something about novels, the modern drama, the modern films – and so on. The argument is that you cannot evangelize the modern man if you cannot speak to him in his own idiom, if you do not know how he thinks. So you have got to familiarize yourself with these things. I do not know that I have told you here of an experience I had about fifteen months ago. I was preaching in a certain place, and a young man and his wife, who were going to be missionaries, were very kindly driving me there and back. They belonged to the church where I was preaching. As we were going home that night, the wife, sitting at the back, suddenly burst upon me, ‘Could I ask you a question?’ I said, ‘Yes, what is it?’ ‘Now’, she said, ‘what’s your view about reading modern novels?’ I was somewhat taken aback, because I knew that she was in a well-known missionary training college. I said, ‘Why do you ask that question?’ She replied: ‘I am in great trouble about it in my college. I am actually being persecuted.’ ‘What’s this?’ I asked. ‘Well’, she said, ‘one of our lecturers told us that if we want to evangelize the modern man, we really must know what he reads, what he is talking about, the way in which he thinks.’ So now, one of the first things she has to do is to read modern novels. The lecturer had commanded certain novels. ‘I read one of them’, said this candidate. ‘You know, it did me such harm, and it made me so unhappy and so miserable that I decided I should not read another one. I could see no purpose in it and it did me great harm. I refuse to read any more.’ She added ‘I am now being attacked by my fellow-students and by the lecturers. They say I am not doing my duty, and I cannot be an effective missionary’ – because she was not reading these modern novels! I said: ‘Didn’t they tell you that you ought to spend three to six months in a public house every night, so that you could evangelize drunkards? Did they tell you that?’ No, they had not told her that! I said: ‘They should have – to be logical – they should have!’ – But this is the attitude. What does it mean? It means that God is forgotten. You see, we do it all.

Now, the extraordinary thing about this is that this teaching has come from the Free University of Amsterdam, the great Calvinistic College, founded by Abraham Kuyper in 1880, the great bulwark of the Reformed Faith. That is where it has come from. This is what is so interesting. Calvinism, which has always exalted the sovereignty and the glory of God, has now become thoroughly Arminian in this matter! God is more or less forgotten. And that outlook I met in America two years ago, where even in well-known seminaries they on the whole did not believe in preaching any more. What you do is this: you go to people’s houses and you start talking politics to them, and you show the defects in their politics and try to introduce them to Christian politics. Or, if they are interested in art, you see paintings on the wall and you start talking about modern art; you expose the wrongfulness of modern art and its background, and then you tell them about Christian art – and so on. That is the way in which you evangelize. The declaration, such as Paul made in Athens – ‘whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you!’ – that is out. You do not declare Him with a dialogue! You hold a discussion. So you see, in this way God, I maintain, is being forgotten. The whole emphasis is upon our trying, our becoming well-versed in these various disciplines and interests and aspects of culture today. This is the way. Brethren, I maintain that this is a denial of God – the living, acting God and His sovereignty in all these matters!

THEOLOGICAL SCHOLASTICS

I must go one further step. I believe the same thing is happening in the realm of what I call a ‘theological scholasticism’ which is beginning to manifest itself amongst us – a ‘theological scholasticism’ in which we talk about the doctrines of grace instead of talking about God, the doctrines of salvation instead of Christ, the living Saviour. I believe that this is a new form of Deism. I could convict so many today of a new Deism. You know what that means. It took this form at the beginning of the eighteenth century: God was regarded as the great Creator, described as a great watch-maker. He made the watch, He wound it up, and then He put it down and He has no more to do with it. That was their way, you see, of denying miracles. Miracles are nonsense, they said. God does not interfere. He has made the watch, He has put it down, and on it goes; He does not interfere with it. Deism! Well, I suspect a new kind of Deism is with us. I was referring to it partly yesterday in talking about miraculous healing and miracles and things of that kind. On some sort of theological and biblical grounds, as they would claim, they say that miracles cannot happen today, because all this ended with the Apostles. As if to say, ‘Oh yes, God acted then; but He hasn’t acted like that since.’ He is shut out, on a priori grounds, on what they call biblical and theoretical grounds. They say, ‘God does not act like that now.’ They are shutting Him out. Is not that Deism? Who has given them the right to say this? The Scriptures do not say it, but they are saying it.

The fact is, of course, that there are many such people, who not only will not admit the possibility of miracles today, or at any time since the apostolic era, but equally reject the possibility of demon-possession today. They are dismissing it all as psychological. They will not grant that it is possible for a person to be demon-possessed today. They admit, of course, that it happened in New Testament times; but, they say, not now. I am not imagining all this. I have been involved in discussions about it, and I know that this is their standpoint. They will not accept the possibility of demon-possession today. It is all explained in terms of psychology. This is as if to say, you see, that because, on their understanding of it, God had decided at the end of the apostolic era that He would not interfere any more in a miraculous manner, the devil also very kindly and very politely said, ‘Well, I will not act either.’ That is what it comes to. You see, the thing is monstrous and ridiculous. In other words, these men have worked themselves into a theoretical and academical theological position in which God is not allowed to act, and the demons are not allowed to act; there is no spiritual activity. What is Christianity? Well, Christianity is an acceptance of a body of doctrine, and a discussion of this and a defence of this, and an attempt to understand it more and more.

Now I say that this shuts out God. The fact that men talk a lot about God does not mean that they really believe in the living God. They are talking about God; they are making statements about God; they are experts on the attributes of God; but they seem to shut out the living God, God Himself, the acting God. By their theories, He is not allowed to act. This is Deism; it is a kind of theological scholasticism. And this is the terrifying thing, that you can be talking about God and His attributes and so on, and yet have no contact with and no personal knowledge of this living God. I am not exaggerating, brethren, I am speaking solemn truths and facts. You can find some of the highest and most orthodox seminaries and collections of Christian men, reformed, Calvinistic, orthodox up to the latest dot, and the guardians of this faith, and some of them never have a prayer meeting and never talk about prayer. As I say, in their actual teaching they exclude the activity of the spiritual realm directly and immediately today, whether from the side of the Holy Spirit, or from the side of the evil spirits.

REVIVAL – DANGEROUS?

In the same way, of course, they are not interested in the whole notion of revival. They never talk about it; in fact, they dislike it. Revivals are regarded as enthusiasm, as something excessive, dangerous, ecstatic. They say this is not what is needed. We have received everything, we are born again, we have the Scriptures. What we need to do is just to go on to understand the Scriptures more deeply. They not only do not expect the Spirit to come upon them, but they do not like teaching which suggests that He can come, and that we should pray for Him to come. All this is disliked. Now I am not imagining this. I could prove this to you. Those of you who have the three volumes of Charles Hodge on Theology, observe the amount of space which he gives to the Holy Spirit in those three volumes; observe the amount of space he gives to revival. You can do the same with the works of Warfield. I say this with profound regret, because of my debt to these men. But I think that was the great weakness in their whole position, as it was still more in the case of Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck of Holland. The result is that today institutions that were founded as bastions of orthodoxy have become hotbeds of modernism and liberalism. And I would attribute it entirely to this, that it had become theoretical, intellectual; it has become an intellectualism, God is shut out, even though they are always talking about God. This is the tragedy of the situation, and it reminds us of the subtlety of the devil.

This further shows itself in this way, in an antipietistic attitude. Pietism has become a term of abuse by now. When you talk about the subjective element and the experimental, it is dismissed as Pietism. It has been a word of taboo for years on the Continent, and in Holland in particular, where they call it either Pietism or Methodism. They dislike it; they show bitterness with respect to it. It is astounding that many who claim to be the most biblical of all men should react even with temper and with an element of violence against what they call Pietism. They dislike the eighteenth century, and so on.

GOD WHO ACTS

Well now, these are the ways, I think, in which unconsciously so many of us have been forgetting God, the living God. Why is this so wrong? There is only one answer: because it contradicts the main message of the Bible. The main message of the Bible is to tell us about the activity of God. What did the men filled with the Holy Spirit talk about on the day of Pentecost? Well, fortunately we have the evidence of the people who were there. These men ‘were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?’ Then the list of the people follows – ‘. . . Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues’ – speak what? the wonderful experiences we have had? No, – 0′the wonderful works of God.’ That is the theme of the whole Bible. The Bible is the record of the wonderful works of God. It is not a textbook of theology primarily; it is a history book, the history of the wonderful works of God. The Bible is really the history of the salvation of God. In order to be that, it has to start with the beginning: the creation and so on. But its real message is God’s activity in the redemption of a fallen human race. Is not that its message from beginning to end? ‘In the beginning God created.’ How can we possibly go wrong after that? But we do – we forget that it all begins with God.

Then the story goes on. Every time man acts, he always does something wrong, doesn’t he? He sins, he rebels, he goes astray in his cleverness, and so on. And the whole thing had ended, were it not that God comes in. Isn’t it amazing how we can miss this? Adam and Eve listen to the devil, you see, and they sin, and they immediately realize they have done wrong, and they are alarmed and they are troubled, and they go and hide. God comes down – God coming down! – in the cool of the evening, and He shouts, ‘Adam, where art thou?’ And out they come, trembling. God – God coming down! This is a summary of the whole message. I wish I had the time just to take you through the whole thing again. You say that we know all this. I know. The people to whom the psalmist recapitulated the history, they knew. And you remember what old Peter says in his second Epistle. He is going to die, he says. What is he going to do with them? Is he giving them a new message? No. He is reminding them of the things they already know. Why? Well, because although they knew them, they had forgotten them. The greatest need in the Church and the greatest need of ourselves is to be reminded of what we know. ‘Though you know them’, says Peter, ‘and are established in the present truth’ – and he keeps on repeating this. Yea, he says, while I am in this tabernacle I am to go on reminding you. Is it not tragic that we need to be reminded of the central thing? We are experts on details, but we have forgotten the centre. So we need to be reminded of all this.

The Bible is full of it. God did not stop acting when He came down to the garden of Eden. He went on acting. The tower of Babel, the flood before the tower of Babel, the call of Abraham – this is God acting, God interfering, God erupting into it all, choosing men, speaking, giving them a message – and on you could go. Go through it all. Those patriarchs: Jacob – that night and the ladder, the living God, the house of God, and the great vision. Are you asking me to believe that Jacob was in a superior position to us? Are you in the position in which you say, ‘I wish I was living in the times of Jacob, and that I could have a direct contact with God’? That is what is being taught, you know. What is being taught in Christendom today is this, that since we have got the New Testament canon, since we have got the Word now, we do not need these direct interventions, we do not need God to speak to us directly, as He spoke to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and these patriarchs. We have got the Word now! Is this superior to the direct speech of God? I think we are mad! There is no other word for this. We are mad’ We are meant to be in a superior position to every Old Testament saint because of what has happened in our blessed Lord and Saviour! But this teaching would have us believe that we do not need this direct contact with God now, and that all that has come to an end since the formation of the New Testament canon.

Well, go on, read about Moses, read about Joshua and about David. Go and read about the messages as they came to the great prophets. And all is God raising up, God acting, God interfering. Then, ‘when the fulness of the time was come, God send forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.’ And the whole time we have the law, the finger of God. ‘The words I speak, I speak not of myself’. We see His utter dependence upon His Father. He is repeating the message that has been given to Him. He puts His whole emphasis upon the activity of God. This is a part of His self-humiliation. He does not empty Himself of His Godhead, but He empties Himself of some of the prerogatives, and He is living as a man, and He is dependent. That is why He used to pray so much. ‘Our Lord had a greater need of prayer than you and I. We can get on much better without prayer than our Lord could!’ That is our position! Why? ‘We have got the New Testament canon – work out the theology! We do not need this now! We have got the truth; it is understanding of the truth that matters’, we say! So we do not pray. So we do not know God!

Well, here it is. This is what I want to emphasize. Our Lord has given this teaching, and He returned to heaven. Has God stopped acting? Read the book of Acts. And it is a book of acts, as has been pointed out; not so much the acts of the Apostles, as the acts of the Holy Spirit, the acts of the risen Lord through these Apostles. That is what they keep on saying. When the people came to Peter and John in the temple and were ready to worship them, they said, ‘It is not we. It is His Name, – through the power that is in His Name – that has done this wonderful thing.’ All along they pointed people to Him. It is the activity of the risen Lord. Luke at the very introduction speaks of the things which ‘Jesus began to do’. He is still doing them! The same Jesus! He has gone back, but He has not stopped acting. They are the acts of the living Lord and on they go. You find it running right through this book of the Acts of the Apostles. Then you get your Epistles with their great expositions. But does this mean that because we have got it all recorded, He has stopped acting? I suggest that that is to deny the message of the Scriptures. He goes on acting. He has not stopped acting. As He did not stop when He rose from the dead, and He did not stop when the Spirit was sent, still less has He stopped because we have got the New Testament canon.

GOD’S METHOD

He has gone on acting subsequently throughout the running centuries. We would not be here this afternoon, if it were not for the living and the acting God. The study of the Scriptures alone would have finished the Church long ago. Your great experts your orthodox men – it was dead – and it would have died! And what has kept the Church alive has been God acting in revival. John the Baptist was not the last man that God called – of course not! The Apostles were not the last men that Christ called. He has been calling men ever since. Brethren, He has called us. It is because of the acting God that we are where we are and what we are. But you see it, of course, supremely in this matter of revival. Jonathan Edwards is surely right when he says, that God’s main method throughout the centuries of adding to the Church and adding to the number of the elect has been through revival. I think that this is true. I think the history of the Church proves this. That has been God’s main method: the hundreds, the thousands are brought in in revival. There are conversions in the intervening periods, but the great additions – the majority of the people when the final number of the elect is made up and they are counted – you will find that the vast majority have come in during periods of revival. And revival is nothing but the direct activity of God the Holy Spirit, the mighty rushing wind, the Spirit coming down, the Spirit being poured out. It is Christ who does this. He is the One who baptizes with the Spirit. He pours out His Spirit. And this, I say, is what is meant by revival.

Now it sounds as if I am discouraging the study of the Scriptures and theology, which I am not. All I am saying is that if we stop at that, we are excluding God. Do that for all you are worth, but on top of it all, remember that the great point of the whole teaching of the Bible, of all you can deduce from it, is to tell you that God is a God who acts. And our only hope this afternoon is that this is still true. He has not finished acting. He is going on. The number of the elect is going to be made up; all Israel is going to be gathered in. What comfort have you got as you face your modern humanism and materialism, and the various philosophies, and communism, and everything that is so much against us? Is your study in the Scriptures, is your apologetics going to deal with this? If you believe that, you are the biggest fool in Christendom! There is only one hope. That is that He is still the living and the acting God. Christ is at His right hand, and He is seated and waiting until His enemies should be made His footstool. God knows when the end is coming. He alone knows it, but it is coming. It is coming! There is a day coming when Christ will come back conquering and to conquer. Let the world do what it will. Let hell be let loose. It will make no difference; there is nothing that ‘can make Him His purpose forgo’ – thank God! -’nor sever my soul from His love.’

OUR SUPREME NEED

Very well, what I deduce from all this is this, that our supreme need is the realization of the fact that God is alive, and that God acts and is still acting. History, of course, is so full of this. We are not the first to be fools and to go astray. Remember what they did at the end of the seventeenth, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Things were very bad then much as they are now. Robert Boyle felt that something must be done about it. What did he do? Oh appoint a lectureship; we are going to do it, you see! Lectureship! We are going to defend the truth. Bishop Butler – Butler’s Analogy! What is he doing? Oh, defending the truth against the rationalists, Cambridge Platonists, the rationalists and the deists. Defending the truth! Wonderful – great men – great scholars! They are going to defend the truth of God! But do you remember the story of what happened? It was George 1, I think, who asked somebody one day about Bishop Butler: ‘Is Bishop Butler dead?’ ‘No, Sir’, said this man, ‘he is not dead, but he is buried somewhere in the country.’ What a good commentary that is on so much of our scholarship! Very learned, very wonderful, but buried in the country! It did not make the slightest difference. But something did make a difference. What was it? God laid His hand on George Whitefield and something happened. Is it not obvious? Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we do not need apologetics; but it has a very small place – keep it there. This is the thing. What the Boyle lectures and Butler’s Analogy did not do and cannot do, nor any other such similar endeavour, God comes in and does. He acts – the living God. He is still the same. And He has done it even since that eighteenth century.

‘PROVE ME NOW’

And now it seems to me that it comes to this. I feel that the message that God is giving to us in this conference is in the words of Malachi. I believe He is saying this to us: ‘Prove me now’ – ‘Prove Me. I am there; you prove Me.’ This has become a tremendous conviction with me. Maybe because I am facing my last years and I have been defending the faith – and people have praised me for doing it. Rubbish! What a miserable failure it has all been! From now on I am determined to do one thing only, and that is to give God no rest nor peace, until He does prove Himself and show Himself. I have expended so much energy in reasoning with the people about this faith. We have got to do that, it is part of preaching. But if we stop at that it will avail us nothing. But what I now am concerned about and I am concentrating on is this – asking God to show Himself, to do something, to give this touch, this manifestation of power. Nothing else will even make people listen to us. See, you bring out your apologetics; the others will answer. Every time you say something, you may say ‘This is unanswerable; nobody can turn this back.’ The reviewers wholly dismiss you, say you are a fool, you are ignorant, you do not know what you are talking about. That is what they will say. I can tell you now. You write your books. That is what you will get. I have had it! You see, one scholar . . . and another answers him. And they are satisfied. No, no! Nothing is going to call the attention of the masses of the people to the truth of this faith save a great phenomenon, such as the phenomenon of the day of Pentecost, the phenomenon of any one of the great revivals, the phenomenon of a single changed life. This is something that always arrests attention, maybe curiosity – what does it matter? The people come and listen. And the preacher has his opportunity. Nothing will avail us save this manifestation of the activity of God.

My plea, therefore, is simply this – and with this I close – that we keep this ever in the forefront of all our thinking, all our preparation of sermons, and all our praying in particular. We must not be content until we have had some manifestation of the activity of God. We must concentrate on this. This is my plea, that we concentrate on this, because it is the great message of the Bible, so substantiated by the lessons of history. That is obviously today the only thing that gives us any hope as we face the future. And God seems to be saying that to us. ‘Prove Me now. Try Me. Risk your everything on Me. Be fools for My sake. Cast yourselves utterly upon this belief.’ Let us put it like this: Do we really believe that God can still act? That is the question; that is the ultimate challenge. Or have we, for theological or some other reasons, excluded the very possibility? Here is the crucial matter. Do we individually and personally really believe that God still acts, can act and will act – in individuals, in groups of individuals, in churches, localities, perhaps even in countries? Do we believe that He is as capable of doing that today as He was in ancient times – the Old Testament, the New Testament times, the book of Acts, Protestant Reformation, Puritans, Methodist Awakening, 1859, 1904-5? Do we really believe that He can still do it? You see, it is ultimately what you believe about God. If He is the great Jehovah – I am that I am, I am that I shall be, unchanged, unchanging, unchangeable, the everlasting and eternal God – well, He can still do it. And I believe He is saying to us. ‘Try Me. Prove Me. Cast your all upon Me. Go on until I have given you the proof you desire.’ Then we will forget the trees for a while, and we will see the grand power of our God, and God’s gracious and eternal purposes in His dear Son. We will first be humbled, and I think many of us will feel that we have never been Christians at all. It will not be true; we are. But what we will experience then will be so great and glorious, so overwhelming, that we will scarcely believe that we have ever known anything about these things at all. May that day soon come!

* The Evangelical Magazine of Wales

This is the third part in my short series on multiculturalism. The first two in the series can be found here:

1. Multiculturalism—You Are What You Eat?

2. Does Multiculturalism Mean I Have To Eat Blood?

When you mix with a number of different nationalities, you begin to realize that cultural differences are more complicated than you appreciated. They can also extend to quite surprising areas of life. One such area is that of whether or not it’s a good idea to circumcise baby boys.

In the UK this practice is definitely on the decline. Articles in the Guardian and Times have sought to further discourage it, although, even by 1975, fewer than 6 per cent of boys born in the UK were circumcised, whereas in the USA this figure was more like 60 per cent, even today. Christianity Today has an article about the decision-making process on whether to chop or not that stays neutral and lists additional links that provide helpful information.

I was raised within a tradition that was not in any way convinced by the arguments of some that circumcision is good for “hygienic reasons.” It was not all that uncommon during sermons to hear throw away comments about how glad we men were that circumcision was no longer required under the New Covenant. In fact, some would have gone further still and argued that circumcision was not permissible for Christians at all. They would have pointed to verses like the following to state that no Christian should allow themselves or their sons to be circumcised.

“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:2-3, emphasis mine).

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace . . .

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! (Galatians 5:7-12).

At first glance these verses would indeed seem pretty conclusive. A bit like the eating blood question, I would, in many ways, love to find biblical support to buttress my prejudices. But not so fast! There are, however, two cardinal rules of biblical interpretation that I must not break. The first is to always consider the context of the passage. The second is to consider the difference between the situation that the words are spoken into and our own situation today, and the implications of this, if any, for our understanding of what the Bible means for us.

So, to the context. Those three dots should be a clue. Let’s have a look at what I deliberately excised from the second passage: “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Paul here seems to be stating that circumcision itself is not the issue. It would seem that, to Paul, being intact or otherwise is not what’s at stake here. In fact, in Acts we learn that Paul actually circumcised one of his helpers—Timothy (Acts 16:3), and yet on another occasion he strongly resisted doing so for another of his helpers—Titus Galatians 2:3. Can you imagine the locker-room conversations between those two?!

Therefore, it does seem to Paul that whether to agree to a circumcision or not is a circumstantial decision that would perhaps hinge around what meaning is going to be given to it. Modern Christians who do circumcise their children are doing so, not for religious grounds, but for what they believe to be health benefits, or just because, unlike me, they have grown up in an environment where the tradition is that you are expected to do it.

I have yet to meet a modern Christian who believes that to carry out an operation on their son will make him more acceptable to God and in any way contribute to justification. Therefore, it would seem wrong to apply these strong warnings against circumcision to the many thousands who do this as a cultural practice. I should be gracious and accepting of such people, and ensure that if the conversation ever comes up, I don’t appear incredulous that people still carry out this ancient practice. But, equally, I hope that those who do this will not consider those of us on the other side of the fence to be somehow “unclean.”

Of course, this can all seem very irrelevant, and by now some of you may be wondering why I have even taken the time to bring this up. I do so because, if we are building churches together, and even marrying across clear cultural divides, these issues can cause division if we are not careful. The truth is, being circumcised or not can certainly be very important in forging your sense of belonging to a group—your “identity.” Even without a conscious rejection of others who are different, there can easily be a feeling of dislocation and disconnection. For example, a careless joke made by someone from “the other side” about remaining intact (or not!) might go flat and leave people feeling unwelcome.

When two people from groups with different perspectives on this issue marry, they may find that it is best to have the conversation about which way their new family decides to go on this issue before any sons are born.

Should Christians circumcise their sons? If you’re looking for a legalistic answer, I’m not at all sorry that I have to disappoint. Like so many of these issues, while there are some biblical guidelines, the answer is—at least on this occasion—it all depends on why you want to do it.

This is the final set of notes I will post. But come back over the next week or two for a series of video interviews, and over this weekend for some notes from other talks Driscoll will be giving around London. As mp3s are posted, we will also be adding download links to the individual summary pages, but you can also check online or subscribe to the podcast.

The final main session of the Brighton Leaders’ Conference was taken by Terry Virgo. More posts from this conference can be found on my TOAM08 label page. You can download the mp3 of Terry’s talk or listen to it right here:

Both Stephen and Philip are introduced as men who are playing their part in a rapidly growing church. Terry described Stephen in his first talk on Tuesday. Today he completes this mini-series with a look at Philip.

There seems to be two halves to the description of Philip. In the first half he is in a domestic scene looking after the needs of widows. Foundations must be built into lives before they can have a public ministry.

This evangelist wasn’t a loner with a ministry. He was known and loved in a local church. He wasn’t isolated. He wasn’t someone who just hadn’t fit in so decides to leave the church to “go and do his evangelism thing.” Rather notice what is said about him. He’s selected by the church. He has a good reputation. When the church wants someone reliable, his name comes up. He was recognized for being “full of the Holy Spirit” when thousands were full of the Holy Spirit. He somehow stood out in that way, suggesting, incidentally, that there are degrees of being full of the Spirit. He was gifted, but he didn’t push for his gift; he served, took his place so others could get on with their ministry. He didn’t demand to be recognized. He was willing to take a lower profile, to put God first.

Later on, he goes and preaches. The Apostles come and he doesn’t tell them to “get out of here,” he receives them. They came to bring the Spirit’s fullness and to remove someone who was getting too much profile. In our family life, we should teach our kids to be team players. Don’t insist on your own way. Don’t just “let them do their own thing.” Prepare them for the kingdom. Ephesians 4 says that the gifts are given to equip the saints so that they may become mature. A mature man looks like Jesus — someone who knows he has come from God and is going to God, and yet he washes his disciples’ feet!

Through love become one another’s slaves. Don’t take the attitude, “I’m not appreciated here so I’ll go somewhere else where I am appreciated.” Be a team player. His household was good. His daughters later are described as having prophesied regularly. [Incidentally, as a side note apart from what Terry actually said, it struck me once again as I was listening that there is no record of these daughter's prophecies being viewed as Scripture, and they are not recorded in the Bible. It still surprises me that some people persist in seeing all prophecy as equivalent to Scripture.]

Back to Terry. These daughters were not rebellious, but full of the Spirit. They were respected. They had been taught to listen to him. Must have been good relationships and an honoring of women. Philip had an exemplary home. It’s such a joy to have children of whom you can be proud.

Suddenly things change. Stephen is martyred. Philip moves into his second half. God in his sovereignty scatters the believers that the world may hear the gospel. Philip is alive to the opportunity. He knows God’s will. He follows the prompting of the Spirit. He is gospel intoxicated, not waiting for an official strategy. He goes with what God is doing. He is willing to move. He shares and takes every opportunity to speak. Philip heralded the good news. He preached Christ. What Christ did he preach? Not just enough to make vague statements. What kind of Christ should we present?

A Jesus rooted in Old Testament revelation.
The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, which was, of course, something of a gift. Tim Keller says people are reacting to abstract theologizing that’s not rooted in the truth. We need to be assured of the message we have. This passage is classic and about the atonement. We must focus there, we must preach the cross. Don’t abandon that as our central theme. The cross didn’t need much description in those days, everyone knew what it was like. These days we need to explain it. We must break through that film that comes on people. We should publicly placard Christ crucified. God’s fury against sin was dealt with. We must feel it strongly. Let the cross captivate our hearts.

A Jesus with the good news of the kingdom of God. Philip was speaking of a phenomenal event. Jesus is the Messiah, the one God sent. He is raised and seated on high ruling and reigning. They glory in the resurrection. They proclaim that the tomb was empty. It’s not just a case of a man whose teachings were so great that “the dream lives on.” His death may have looked as if he were a fraud, as if it’s the end, without the resurrection. But he’s not only alive, he’s reigning. He is the Son of God with power.

A Jesus who had not lost his power to heal.
Philip is preaching and we see amazing things happen. The crowds heard it and saw it. These two men are provocations that our hearers also see the mighty implications of this Jesus being alive, being raised from the dead. Terry encouraged us to get behind Lex Loizides and the Front Edge program. Jesus is alive. Terry realized recently that he’d never taught on healing all these years. He was challenged to proclaim this and teach about this biblical Jesus. Speak about the Bible Jesus. Faith arises, hearts are stirred. “He preached Christ, not healings and miracles” say some commentaries. But it’s amazing at the end, so they were baptized. But then the text doesn’t mention baptism. He must have mentioned baptism then, just didn’t record that he said that. So he proclaimed the sort of Christ who can heal the sick and oppressed of the devil. He presented him as he was in the Bible. People got healed because he told people what Jesus was like and what he did. He didn’t present substitutionary atonement alone, but spoke of other things that Jesus did. In Galatians it is Jesus who supplies the Spirit to them and performs miracles among them. In the gospels he is either healing, coming from a healing, or about to do one. He is performing healings all the time. To preach Christ without even mentioning it is to preach an incomplete Christ. Jesus is still the same, yesterday and today and forever. Often uncomfortable with the teaching of those who go for healing. Well then it’s time for US to preach it like it is and go for it!

A Jesus who expected a whole hearted response.
He baptized them. For joy he sells everything to get the pearl. We need to be absolutely besotted with Christ and the kingdom. It is vital.

A Jesus who could bring joy to the city.
Mark talked about the cities yesterday. Church planting is not just going up the road to the next town. We need to go for it. God wants our tragic cities with their multiple problems. The gospel must break out in our cities. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit.

A Jesus with the nations in mind.
The nations come to our cities. We must be on our toes. God wants to go to the ends of the earth.

When I write these notes, I do sometimes slip in things that strike me, so please understand they are never meant to be accurate transcripts. One thing strikes me about this passage, which Terry didn’t have to say, speaking as he was to a room full of charismatics — healings and miracles are not enough. Baptisms and repentance are not enough. It is so striking that none of those things particularly impressed the magician, Simon. It is surely one of the most obvious demonstrations that the receiving of the Spirit is not meant to be a private intimate secret affair that even the recipient might not realize it has happened. No, the man who had seen all those miracles was only impressed when the Apostles came, laid hands on people, and they received the Spirit. We are not told here exactly what happened. But it was enough to make this man offer money that he could also impart the Spirit. If it had been us, many of us would instead have offered money to be able to heal people! Whatever your theology of the Spirit is, make sure you have room for a dramatic encounter that somehow is so visible and impressive in its results that it is more dramatic even than healings. We have to expect an anointing of the Spirit that is tangible and vivid and has dynamic results.

Back to Terry. We also see here the need to be like Philip, who was eager to bring in someone from outside. We need to be those who ask for people to come from the outside, to ask for help. We need people who are like Stephen and Philip, who can say with humility, “It’s not mine, it doesn’t belong to me. It’s God’s ministry.”

Philip is whisked off from the multitude to one guy. He has a passion for the crowd, but also for the individual. He is not caught up in the moment of high profile.

Terry then spoke of how some leaders get as far as they can go in their gift and they have to make room for someone else to take over and take the lead. That takes a humble heart. It’s not failure. You can be fulfilled by doing this. Make room. I want you to move in and take over! That’s a difficult thing for a pastor to say. We need to hear stories that people in the churches have stepped down. It takes a lot of grace to do that. Wives can be jealous for their husbands. Be flexible, be humble. Stephen lost his life, Philip laid down his life so others could play their role.

What comes first is the kingdom. It’s about being besotted with Jesus. Having a passion for him. Let’s talk about the WHOLE Jesus, the Bible Jesus. The one who began to work, and is still working today. It will be hard, it will be tough. But let’s go for it! As we have as our motto on all of our literature at Jubilee Church, “It’s all about Jesus.”